1. Technical Field
This invention relates to the field of telecommunications and more particularly to a voicemail system using real time messaging as well as text-to-speech and speech-to-text conversions.
2. Description of the Related Art
When using a voicemail system in attempts to reach a particular person over the phone, a caller may never know whether a voicemail message left for the particular person is retrieved. In many instances such as in commercial settings, many workers either fail to retrieve their voicemails when they are in their office or they fail to retrieve their voicemails remotely when they are traveling. More recently, laptop computers and network connected handheld devices are becoming ubiquitous. One of the most used applications in a networked environment is instant messaging (IM). Many people are using IM for collaboration within their enterprise as well as with customers, partners, friends, and family. Thus, two communication systems for collaboration exist, yet a unified system fails to exist that fully takes advantage of both systems.
Several systems attempt to bridge the gap between voicemail and instant messaging systems, but such existing systems usually have limitations that prevent a truly user friendly experience in a real-time environment. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,430,604 describes a method of delivering instant messages using cell phones and text pagers but using only text entry. Another patent, WO0135615A2, discusses a method of extending an IM system to telephone messaging systems where a user can log into their voice messaging system to communicate with users on their buddy list. European Patent EP0999685A2 appears to describe a system and method for interactive message communication that includes the steps of receiving a marked-up e-mail by an interactive voice response (IVR) system, the marked-up e-mail containing a menu, converting the menu from text to speech, producing a speech menu, reading the speech menu from the IVR system to a telephone unit, and transmitting a response to the marked-up e-mail based on the speech menu.
Examples of known systems using text-to-speech and speech-to-text include U.S. Patent Publication US2002/0069069 A1, where such system focuses on communications between participants that can and cannot hear voice conversations, or U.S. Pat. No. 6,339,754 B1, where text-to-speech and speech-to-text technologies coupled with language translation enable chat and voice conferencing, or U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,385,586 B1 or 6,292,769 B1, where text-to-speech and speech-to-text technologies are used to improve language translation between two or more spoken (different language) communications.
Although there are numerous systems using text-to-speech and speech-to-text technologies, none are ideally suited for augmenting voice (and text) chat over data transmission protocols, wherein such protocols can include chat/instant messaging (IM) and messaging protocols such as SMS. None of the existing systems provide a method of delivering voice messages to the intended recipient in the native format of the recipient's device in the language understood by the recipient while also providing a real-time collaboration system. Furthermore, none of the systems appear to enable a caller to instantly reach a callee using IM or enable a callee to correspond to such a caller, particular if the caller does not have access to an IM application. Thus, a need exists for a system and method that can overcome the detriments described above.